We all remember the fallout from comments made about the hair of the Rutgers Women’s Basketball team. And who could forget the global attention that was focused on the hair of Olympic Gold medalist Gabby Douglass. Now critics on social media unfairly take Fox’s Pam Oliver to task over her hair during on-air appearances during this weekend’s NFC Championship Game.

Poor Pam Oliver. She’s a veteran in sports broadcasting. She’s been the lead sideline broadcaster for Fox’s #1 NFL broadcast for 19 years and the the 1st African-American female to act as the sole sideline reporter for a major American sport. But one unfortunate bad hair day and suddenly she’s being compared to Star Wars’ Chewbacca and trending on Twitter with comments like these: “Did Pam get electrocuted?” and “Does #PamOliver have a damn mop on her head? There are more that we won’t share because they’re too offensive and insensitive.

And do you know where most of this hate is coming from? It’s the self-appointed members of the black hair police who monitor other people’s hair. Yes, it’s other Black people who now use social media to perpetuate self-hatred the same way the Willie Lynch speech was used in the 1700’s as the “secret” to controlling black slaves by setting them against one another.

We all know black hair is a touchy topic of debate for many African Americans, but from the way certain people are carrying on about Oliver on social media, you’d think she’d committed a crime other than daring to show her face on TV looking less than picture perfect. She’s not a movie star. She’s a sidelines reporter. The wind blows. It’s hard to keep every strand in place, especially if you don’t get to sit in a nice cozy booth like the males who host these games. Oliver was on her feet working. Besides, who has never had a bad hair day?

These armchair critics need to relax. They would never go in on a man like that. She’s being held to a different standard. It’s so unfair. Oliver and her long, auburn tresses will bounce back faster than you can say, “blow dry and curl.” By the Super Bowl, Oliver will be back on her game, as they say. She’d better be because the hair police will be lying in wait, claws bared and ready to pounce.

WHUR

WHUR 96.3 FM – Howard University is Washington’s only stand-alone radio station and one of the few university-owned commercial radio stations in America, broadcasting since 1971 to nearly a half million listeners daily in five states and can now be heard around the globe on the web at whur.com. The first radio station in the Washington area to broadcast in HD, WHUR is the recipient of numerous awards, including the prestigious NAB Marconi for Best Urban Station of the Year and NAB Crystal Radio Award for Excellence in Community Service.